Hebronix - Viral

High on painkillers, the former Yuck man chats to us about his Lynchian video and new direction

Ex-Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg has been busy working on material for his new outfit, Hebronix. "Viral" is the second single from the forthcoming album and is a honeypot of nostalgia-dipped vocals and ambient, dreamy guitar licks. Nursing a broken hand after a motorcylce crash in Hackney two days ago, Daniel told us about and the inspiration behind the video, working with one of the famed Kinski family and the artistic wonders of chess.

“My friend Michael [Reich] directed the video. He lives in LA and he’s just finished his first feature film. We’ve got a really good relationship and we talked about it together. When I gave him the track I thought he’d make a really nice accompaniment to it. He did the videos for Yuck and we’ve been friends ever since. There’s a guy looking through the window. I go and have a shower and cook some eggs and then go up the stairs where I meet a nearly naked man – he presents his hand and there’s a woman in his hand and then she converts into an egg. He puts the egg under my pillow and then she’s in my bed. Then a three some explodes.

I’m a big fan of the Kinski family so working with Sonja was great. Micheal’s just done a film with her called “She’s Allergic to Cats” and Sonja’s the main character in that. I’m not massively into actors, I’m more into directors but Sonja's always been one that I love, so it’s really cool to have her in my video. I'm a big fan of her grandfather. Stacey [Martin] was my partner in the video and she’s my girlfriend in real life too so it’s really nice to do something with her. We were trying to make something good to watch. Film making is an artistic process. The approach to it was to make a video where there was no promotional element that moved it away from art. Michael makes films as a form of expression and it reminds me of a David Lynch film - maybe Mulholland Drive. In fact, we went to see that together in this place called Rio Cinema at midnight one night. The film's good because your're consumed in it and it's difficult to understand. I like things that draw you in and make you feel certain things. You don't necessarily articulate with language. Film's a language in itself.

I wanted to concentrate on doing stuff I want and that excites me. The video was part of that process. I get very excited about lots of different things, like chess for example, but I always come back to records and drawing. Chess is quite fascinating and there are a few chess pieces in the album artwork. I like the imagery of it and how contained it is. It’s a creative format that lives within itself. Marcel Duchamp said “not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists.” He quit painting to focus on playing chess and he even wrote a chess book so yeah, I think it’s creative and scientific.